Commentaria in Josue
Anagogically, Origen takes every place to mean heaven and the glory and happiness of heaven: “Lucifer,” he says, “had a seat in the heavens; but after he became a fugitive Angel, if I can conquer him and subject him under my feet, if I shall deserve that my Lord Jesus crush Satan under my feet, I shall in consequence deserve to receive Lucifer’s place in the heavens.”
Finally St. Francis says: To tread upon is to despise; but poverty of spirit despises all things and treads upon them. She, therefore, is the mistress of all and queen of the world, according to the saying: “To the faithful man the whole world is full of riches.” So relates Luke Wadding in the sayings and writings of St. Francis. For the covetous man, says St. Bernard, hungers for earthly things like a beggar; the poor in spirit despises them like a lord. St. Cyprian gives the reason in the Lord’s Prayer, saying: “He who has now renounced the world is greater than its honours and its kingdom, and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and to Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms.” And St. Chrysostom, homily 415 to the People: “As to those looking from the summit of a mountain all things seem small, and not only men and trees but whole cities and great armies seem to go over the earth like ants: so to those who with uplifted mind dwell as it were on high among heavenly things, all human things, power, glory, riches appear so minute and slight that they judge them not even worthy to be given the nobility of an immortal soul.”
Such, then, is the eagle, which, as Job says, xxxix, 27: “Will make her nest in high places, etc. From thence she looketh for the prey, and her eyes behold afar off”: namely, “a mind fixed in heaven laughs at the mockeries of the world.” St. Gregory confesses he was such when he lived the religious life in the monastery. For writing to Theoctista, the Emperor’s sister, book i, epistle 5: “Desiring nothing in this world, fearing nothing, I seemed to myself to stand on a kind of summit of things, so that I almost believed fulfilled in me what I had learned from the Prophet, the Lord promising: I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth.
For he is lifted up above the height of the earth who even the things that seem high and glorious in the present age treads upon by contempt of mind.”
4. FROM THE DESERT AND LIBANUS AS FAR AS THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES, ALL THE LAND OF THE HETHITES UNTO THE GREAT SEA OF THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN, SHALL BE YOUR BORDER.—Here God bounds the promised land beyond the Jordan on three sides of the world, and assigns it three limits accordingly: for it has the Desert of Arabia on the south, Libanus and the Euphrates on the north, the great sea, that is the Mediterranean, on the west. The fourth limit, on the east, namely the Jordan, is omitted, because Josue stood not far from it, and God was showing this land from there.
LIBANUS.—The Septuagint has Antilibanus: but it is the same mountain, which toward the Mediterranean sea is divided as it were by a slanting valley, and is called Libanus near Tripolis, Antilibanus near Sidon, says Strabo, book xvi. The Greek Antilibanos properly means the mountain opposite Libanus: for Antilibanus near Sidon is so curved as to seem opposed to Libanus. Hence St. Jerome in the Places of the Hebrews says: All the region which is above Libanus to the East, looking around the region of Damascus, which fell by lot to the tribe of Manasses, is called Antilibanus.
Moreover Libanus in Hebrew is derived from laban, that is white, because it is always white with snow on its summit; likewise from lebonah, that is frankincense, because Libanus abounds in cedars, pines, cypresses and other resinous and incense-bearing trees, say Masius and Adrichomius, for Libanus is the greatest, highest, most fertile, most pleasant and most beautiful of all the mountains of Syria. Hence it is clear why Ecclesiasticus, chapter xxxix, verse 18, said: “Give ye a sweet odour as frankincense. Flourish with flowers, as the lily, and yield a smell, and bring forth leaves in grace,” that is, for grace, praise the Lord gratefully and gracefully in his works. Likewise why the glory of the Church is compared to the beauty or fragrance of Libanus, Isaias chapter lx, verse 13: “The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir tree, and the box tree, and the pine tree.” And chapter xxxv, verse 2: “The glory of Libanus is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Saron.” And Osee chapter xiv, verse 7: “He shall spring as the lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Libanus. His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as that of Libanus.” And Canticles chapter iv, verse 8: “Come from Libanus, my spouse.”
ALL THE LAND OF THE HETHITES,—that is, of the Chanaanites. It is a synecdoche. For by one nation he means the other six nations inhabiting the promised land, as elsewhere he calls the same Amorrhites, who were only one nation of these seven. So Genesis xxvii, last verse, Rebecca does not wish her son Jacob to take a wife of the daughters of Heth, or Hethite, that is Chanaanite, as is explained in chapter xxviii, 1. So Abulensis.
Moreover the Hethites were begotten of and named from Heth, son of Chanaan, son of Cham, son of Noe, Genesis chapter x, verse 15, and inhabited a place called after them Heth in the region of Hebron. Hence from these Hethites Abraham bought the double cave in Heth for burying Sara, Genesis chapter xxiii, verse 16. Now the Hethites were brave, warlike and formidable men, as their name also indicates. For the Hethites are called in Hebrew Chittim, that is, crushing and striking terror. Hence among the Hethites were the terrible giants called Enacim, inhabitants of Hebron, Numbers chapter xiii, verse 34. Urias also was a Hethite, a most valiant soldier, whom David killed by the sword of the children of Ammon, that he might get his wife, 2 Kings xi, verse 9. He names the Hethites here, therefore, before the other Chanaanite nations, because by their strength they were formidable to Josue and the Hebrews, as if to say: Fear not the Hethites, though gigantic and most warlike; for I will tame them and subdue them to thee. So Masius.
UNTO THE GREAT SEA, etc., SHALL BE YOUR BORDER.—Note: These were the ample and vast bounds of Chanaan promised by God to the Hebrews, but the Hebrews did not in fact obtain them all, partly through their own sloth, partly because they offended God by their crimes and rendered themselves unworthy of his promises, as will appear in Judges iii, 20.
which are narrated in the Old Testament, it was always the Son who appeared, not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit; that is, the Angel appearing in them bore the person of the Son, to signify that he would some day descend to earth and assume flesh to save men.
I WILL NOT LEAVE THEE, NOR FORSAKE THEE,—unless thou or thine first forsake me, as Achan forsook me, seizing spoils from Jericho against my command, and therefore I forsook you for a time, and delivered you to be slaughtered by the Chanaanites inhabiting the city of Hai, chapter vii. Moreover what is promised to Josue is promised to all the faithful and just sons of Jesus Christ. Hence the Apostle, Hebrews chapter xiii, verse 5: “Let your manners be without covetousness, contented with such things as you have; for he hath said: I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee.” Hence also St. Augustine and the Council of Trent, session vi, canon 11, teach that this is a spur to the just: “That they may feel themselves the more bound to walk in the way of justice; for God, by his grace, does not forsake those once justified, unless he be first forsaken by them.”
6. FOR THOU (shalt subdue by arms, and having subdued) SHALT DIVIDE BY LOT TO THIS PEOPLE THE LAND,—that thou mayst be a type of Jesus Christ, who opened heaven and distributes it to his elect.
Hear St. Chrysostom, homily on the Acts, near the end: “Lead out to war a hundred myriads, and one holy man, we know that he will do more. Jesus Nave went out to war, and he alone did all things bravely, while the others accomplished nothing: a multitude, when it does not do the Lord’s will, differs in nothing from those who are not.” And a little after: “I would,” he says, “that the Church were adorned with a multitude, but a proved multitude; but if this cannot be, at least let those few be proved; you see that it is better to have one precious stone than a thousand farthings.”
7. TAKE COURAGE THEREFORE, AND BE VERY VALIANT,—the Hebrew meod, that is, exceedingly, that is, greatly; for one must strive beyond the powers of nature for the law and for God, that we may fulfil the supernatural law of God; what is too much for nature is enough for grace and charity. Great and heavenly strength, therefore, is needed to conquer concupiscences, temptations and all that opposes the law of God, and so to carry out the whole law of God. For this reason God here repeats three times “take courage, and be strong,” as is clear from verses 6, 7, 9, to show that he needs the threefold and highest strength of the most holy Trinity.